Opponents of a U.S. law they claim may subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism persuaded a federal judge to temporarily block the measure.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan yesterday ruled in favor of a group of writers and activists who sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Defense Department, claiming a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Dec. 31, puts them in fear that they could be arrested and held by U.S. armed forces.

The complaint was filed Jan. 13 by a group including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges. The plaintiffs contend a section of the law allows for detention of citizens and permanent residents taken into custody in the U.S. on “suspicion of providing substantial support” to people engaged in hostilities against the U.S., such as al-Qaeda.

“The statute at issue places the public at undue risk of having their speech chilled for the purported protection from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ‘associated forces’ – i.e., ‘foreign terrorist organizations,’” Forrest said in an opinion yesterday. “The vagueness of Section 1021 does not allow the average citizen, or even the government itself, to understand with the type of definiteness to which our citizens are entitled, or what conduct comes within its scope.”

CONTINUED at Bloomberg.

Remember when Kissinger said this?: “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”

Seems no one is immune from the tender mercies of the TSA pat-down. First, we learned thatSen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was subjected to a handsy search. And now we learn of the latest high-profile search-ee: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Yeah, the guy who was once an advisor to presidents, the one who helped negotiate the end to the Vietnam War…and, oh yeah, he’s got a Nobel Peace Prize.

But not, apparently, in his pocket.

Kissinger, who will be 89 this month, was spotted on Friday at LaGuardia airport in New York, getting routed to the pat-down line while going through security. Freelance reporter Matthew Cole recognized him — something the TSA agent checking identification did not.

After asking Kissinger his name as he passed through the scanner, the agent sent him to be searched. Kissinger was in a wheelchair, Cole tells us, not because he couldn’t walk, but because, Cole surmised, it was a long walk to the gate. In the search area, Kissinger was subjected to what Cole called “the full Monty” of the usual groping. “He stood with his suit jacket off, and he was wearing suspenders. They gave him the full pat-down. None of the agents seemed to know who he was,” he says.

But the security sweep didn’t seem to put the Kissinger in a foul mood. Once settled into his flight to Toronto, Kissinger asked the aide travelling with him to find out what was being served for breakfast. Informed that it would be ham and eggs, Kissinger asked his associate if he could locate an alternative meal. “But do they have any schnitzel?” he inquired.

That seemed to be less a genuine request and more of an inside joke, Cole said, since the aide and Kissinger both laughed.

Source: The Washington Post.

Seven hundred National Guard members from the Northeast and Caribbean will be in central New York this week for disaster preparedness training. They will train for certification as a regional disaster response force capable of assisting responders following a chemical, biological, nuclear or high-explosive incident, according to the Associated Press.

They are part of the National Guard Homeland Response Force (HRF) controlled by the Department of Defense. There are currently ten HRF units hosted by one state in each FEMA region, according to the Pentagon.

In February, it was reported that FEMA plans to move National Guard troops from one FEMA district to another during natural disasters and other emergencies. FEMA administrator Craig Fugate made the announcement after Obama signed Presidential Policy Directive 8 on March 30, 2011.

“PPD-8 reflects the Obama Administration’s belief that the whole community – including all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and individual citizens – plays a key role in preparedness efforts,” the National Guard website reported.

CONTINUED at Prison Planet.

Common sense dictates that an IP address is just a number associated with a connection, and not a human being. Copyright crusaders aren’t exactly known for loads of common sense and rationality. Thankfully, a New York judge has ruled that an IP address alone is not enough to pin illegal downloads on a specific person.

The ruling comes in the context of mass torrent lawsuits that just dump thousands of IP addresses into the court and charge everyone associated with them. Cases like theHurt Locker suit filed against 5,000 people for downloading the movie. Judge Gary Brown’s ruling isn’t the first to point out that these cases are idiotic, since there is no practical way to efficiently tie that many address to the specific individuals doing the downloading, but it’s by far the most detailed. We’ve embedded the full ruling below. [TorrentFreak]

Judge Gary Brown IP Address Ruling

Source: Gizmodo.

Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, whose anti-greed message spread worldwide during an eight-week encampment in Lower Manhattan last year, plan marches across the globe tomorrow calling attention to what they say are abuses of power and wealth.

Organizers say they hope the coordinated events will mark a spring resurgence of the movement after a quiet winter. Calls for a general strike with no work, no school, no banking and no shopping have sprung up on websites in Toronto, Barcelona, London, Kuala Lumpur andSydney, among hundreds of cities in North America, Europe and Asia.

CONTINUED at Bloomberg.

The world’s biggest banks are working with one another and police to gather intelligence as protesters try to rejuvenate the Occupy Wall Street movement with May demonstrations, industry security consultants said.

Among 99 protest targets in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday are JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America offices, said Marisa Holmes, a member of Occupy’s May Day planning committee.

Events are scheduled in more than 115 cities, including an effort to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, where Wells Fargo investors relied on police to get past protests at their annual meeting this week.

“Our goal is to kick off the spring offensive and go directly to where the financial elite play and plan,” she said.

After evictions and arrests from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to London that began last year, the movement against income inequality and corporate abuse will regain strength, said Brian McNary, director of global risk at Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations.

CONTINUED at The San Francisco Chronicle.

A New York woman who donated a kidney so her ailing boss would move up the transplant waiting list says she was fired shortly after the operation, according to a complaint she filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights.

Deborah Stevens said her former employer, Atlantic Automotive Group, discriminated against her over disabilities brought about by complications from the surgery, and she plans to sue the company for lost earnings and damages.

The company, which runs car dealerships on Long Island, said Stevens’s complaint is groundless.

“My gal is just a good-natured woman who’s trying to save a life and as soon as she did it, everything changed,” said Stevens’ attorney Lenard Leeds on Tuesday.

“When she wanted to take time off, she was scolded, she was yelled at,” he said. “Instead of being sympathetic, they were very hostile towards her.”

Stevens, of Hicksville, New York, said she learned that Jacqueline Brucia, who worked at Atlantic Automotive, was in need of a kidney in November 2010. Stevens had worked there as well but at the time had temporarily moved to Florida.

Stevens said she told Brucia she would donate a kidney.

“Brucia declined, but told her, ‘You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day,’” the complaint said.

Stevens learned the company would rehire her following her return to New York and not long afterward, Brucia told her a potential donor had not been approved by the hospital and asked if she was still willing to donate.

Stevens now believes Brucia was “grooming (Stevens) to be her ‘back-up plan,’” the complaint said.

Stevens’s kidney was not a good match for Brucia, but she agreed to donate it to a stranger in St. Louis, Missouri, setting up a transplant chain that enabled Brucia to receive a better-matched kidney from a donor in San Francisco.

Surgeons removed Stevens’s left kidney in August, and she returned to work about a month later. The surgery left her with damaged nerves in her leg, digestive problems and mental health issues, her lawyer said.

At work, Brucia became “curt and dismissive,” the complaint said. Stevens said she was berated for taking sick days and forced to relocate to a less desirable office after she complained to human resources about Brucia’s behavior.

On April 11, the company fired her, citing performance reasons.

Stevens’s lawyer said the complaint filed with the Division of Human Rights last week was a necessary step before a federal lawsuit is filed against Brucia and the company.

Telephone calls to Brucia’s home were not answered on Tuesday.

Atlantic Automotive released a statement saying: “It is unfortunate that one employee has used her own generous act to make up a groundless claim.

“Atlantic Auto treated her appropriately and acted honorably and fairly, at every turn,” it said. …

Source: Reuters.

*Written by Rob Rimes.

Yesss! This absurd presidential race has finally come close to an official end! Newt Gingrich, like Rick Santorum two weeks prior, has dropped out of the race. It couldn’t have come at a better time for the man who looks like the 60-something version of Chucky the killer Good Guy doll. Considering that Mitt Romney swept five out of five states last night, Newt knew his days were numbered and decided that it was best to step out of the Romney steamroller’s way and to stop embarrassing himself. Don’t get me wrong, I like Newt as a personality and he brought some real fire to this long-winded and nearly endless contest. He was a good contender for the establishment neocons who pretty much dominate the Republican Party and whether you love him or hate him, he would’ve really been a thorn in Obama’s side if they had gotten the chance to debate. Granted, Gingrich like his neocon counterparts wouldn’t be that far off from Obama on most issues but their bouts would have been entertaining nonetheless and there most assuredly would’ve been a lot of low blows, illegal headbutts and busted faces. That’s a dream match us boxing fans won’t get to see.

Now with the man named after a slimy amphibious lizard creature out of the way, this is truly a two-man race now. Dr. Ron Paul still refuses to go away quietly and thank fuck for that. Frankly, Dr. Paul is going to now soak up all the delegates Mitt Romney has missed on his quest for the American throne. Can Paul win? Not at this point but his strategy of delegate collecting is working. I was doubtful about it but he outlasted everyone but the dominate frontrunner and now has the opportunity to excel further in an effort to take his message of liberty to an even higher level.

Unfortunately for Ron Paul, I don’t think that the media gives a shit (surprise! surprise!) and the people just aren’t listening. The Tea Party isn’t really partying anymore and even if they still gave two shits, they’re brains have been replaced with neocon-flavored slushy. The anti-Romney non-party-affiliated Tea Party is now unified behind the Republican Party candidate. Personally, I am fine with that though, us true Dr. Paul supporters saw that ship sinking as soon as Sarah Palin showed up to the party and spiked the tea. I’ve already tackled most of these points however and it should be apparent to everyone that the Tea Party has pretty much always been the Republicans’ grassroots machine even though it claimed vehemently that it wasn’t. What’s that old saying? Oh yes, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn’t exist.” Well, the greatest trick the Tea Party ever pulled was to convince its members that they weren’t establishment Republican sheep. It doesn’t matter though, they don’t care either way whether they’ve been fully exposed or not. Honestly, even if they were down with the rhetoric they espoused, they still weren’t hardcore enough for me. As far as I am concerned, fuck’m all – bring the anarchy! Why wait for the shit to really hit the fan, let’s tear shit up now and get to rebuilding. It’s time to tear this elephant-sized band-aid the fuck off!

Sorry, I’m just completely fucking disgusted and tired of waiting for America’s slow death.

So this is where we are at. He have Romney and Obama going head-to-head with Paul and Johnson somewhere off to the side trying to remind us all why we are completely fucked. Romney’s wins in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island were just five more bitter nails in the coffin that is sealing away liberty, freedom and prosperity. Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama are just standing there with shovels waiting to start burying the American Dream under six feet of worm-filled dirt. If that doesn’t anger you and make you wake up to the fact that we are going to lose big this year, then you are one of the bumbling fools that handed them the shovels to begin with.

Now Newt Gingrich, who was one of the half dozen or so anti-Romney candidates that really isn’t all that different from Ol’ Mittens, has now come out and endorsed the man who was his rival over the last ten-to-twelve months. Newtie Booty told the GOP faithful that it is time for the party to unite and stand strong behind Mitt Romney so that “Anybody but Obama” can take the White House in November. I love how all the establishment candidates who were the Tea Party’s antithesis to the other establishment candidate are all out supporting him now. Well, all of them other than Rick Santorum who is still swimming in a sea of his own infantile tears and anal juice because he just can’t stop licking his baby bitch wounds. That man couldn’t fade into obscurity any faster. Hopefully he never returns to the fold and I can one day laugh when VH1 features him on an episode of the future show “I Love the 10′s”.

Back to Newt. He’s gone, the world is better off and now he can sign whatever big contract he wants to star on whatever large mainstream media outlet that will compete for his services. He’s too charismatic and sharp to just disappear and I’m sure we will see the man on our screens for years to come. Honestly, I am fine with that. I don’t agree with him on a great many things but I don’t find him offensive or stupid, as I find most of the other GOPers who have already fallen like a herd of fainting goats. I honestly wish Newt the best and I like him being in the public eye. I once really disliked the man but he was a great debater and if there is any truth to how he feels about the Federal Reserve, he can’t be all awful, right?

Then again, there are a hell of a lot more negatives than positives with this guy, so fuck everything I just said. Fuck Newt, fuck Romney and fuck the establishment for once again turning their backs on the one guy who could get us out of this mess and actually beat President Obama. It’s been a long race thus far but we’re finally on the last leg of this marathon.

Now we’re left with Godzilla versus King Kong. Whoever destroys America first is the winner!

Mitt Romney laid claim to the fiercely contested Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night with a fistful of primary triumphs, then urged all who struggle in a shaky U.S. economy to “hold on a little longer, a better America begins tonight.”

Eager to turn the political page to the general election, Romney accused President Barack Obama of “false promises and weak leadership.” He declared, “Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less.”

The former Massachusetts governor spoke as he swept primaries in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York, the first since Rick Santorum conceded the nomination.

“Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee, and I’m going to support the nominee,” the former Pennsylvania senator said on CNN. He added he intended to meet on Wednesday with the winner’s aides.

Romney, speaking to cheering supporters, in New Hampshire, said, “The last few years have been the best Barack Obama can do, but it’s not the best America can do.”

CONTINUED at NY Daily News.